Mumbai doctor gets Magsaysay award

For Mumbai-based Dr Bharat Vatwani, a psychiatrist who got the coveted Ramon Magsaysay Award, it was a big surprise.

"I am completely surprised.....I never thought that I would get the Magsaysay award or even deserved it," Dr Vatwani told DH on Thursday hours after the the award, considered the Nobel prize of Asia, was announced.

For Dr Vatwani, Rabindra Nath Tagore's Shantiniketan, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity and the Anandwan of Baba Amte and Prakash Amte are inspiration.

However, an elated Dr Vatwani said that somehow he also feels that he does not deserve it when he sees wandering mentally ill patients.

Dr Vatwani and his psychiatrist wife Dr Smitha Vatwani started providing free shelter, food and psychiatric treatment to mentally-ill persons living on the streets and reuniting them with their families. They advanced the efforts in the form of Shraddha Rehabilitation Foundation in 1988.

He runs his rehabilitation centre in the hill town of Karjat near Mumbai."These are unfortunate people whom you see wandering on roads, lost in their own world, talking to themselves, laughing sometimes...sometimes with dirty clothes, even sometimes not covered properly. They are worst than what we consider poorest of the poor...and they need care," he said, adding: "Lot more needs to be done for them." "No one gives them a chance and they are often left like that wondering," he said.

Shraddha has been providing temporary custodial care to such people since 1988 for roadside destitute schizophrenia patients. "I think this award would inspire others to work for them and it has come has a boost to our confidence and a major recognition," said Dr Vatwani, who was flooded with telephone calls and congratulatory messages. "The work of Anandwan of the Amtes was something that touched me," he said, adding that India needs many such examples.

"The award is not just to me or my organisation but for the cause," he said.

Besides the complete treatment, which can average around two months, the patients live in a family-like atmosphere, eating well, engaging in productive activities, celebrating the Independence Day, Republic Day, all religious festivals like Diwali, Eid, Christmas, etc, before they can be reunited with their kin.